Renewable Energy Innovations

Twerly Street Lights (Pty) Ltd
Twerly Street Lights (Pty) Ltd is an off-grid urban lighting system powered by a combination of vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) and photovoltaic (PV) cells is being developed by the NMMU. Twerly will produce less noise pollution than conventional wind turbines, which will allow them to be installed in residential areas. In addition, VAWT’s are simpler to construct and less expensive to manufacture.The dual energy supply will allow for off-grid installation, providing clean lighting to urban and rural areas without the need for cabling, which reduces the risk of theft.

Ocean Current Energy Generator
The Ocean Current Energy Generator (OCEG) harvests energy generated by ocean currents and has been investigated as a form of renewable energy. The OCEG project is based on a novel turbine blade design and means of control that has been developed and patented by the NMMU.The data generate at laboratory scale has indicated power coefficients peaking with a tip speed to fluid aped ration of approximately five. In comparison to existing ocean current generation turbines, this indicates that the innovative blade design places this generator at an advantage to existing turbine technologies.